First impressions are everything, and for Vancouver's
Dakona, they have good and bad ramifications.
Perfect Change is built on the kind of big, bombastic modern rock sound -- courtesy of producers Arnold Lanni and Rob Cavallo -- that should easily lure in disciples of
Matchbox Twenty and
the Goo Goo Dolls. Still,
Dakona's approach is painfully clichéd on "Waiting," the disc's irritatingly infectious leadoff number. Vocalist and principal songwriter Ryan McAllister may be a capable frontman with a handsomeness ripe for VH1, but he doesn't help matters with a voice that's a dead ringer for
Our Lady Peace's
Raine Maida. "Revelation" and "Trampoline" fare a little better and do have the kind of cavernous choruses that made
Creed a household name, but while the songs are well written, they suffer from the same sort of anonymity that kept radio-active outfits of yore like
Tonic and
Vertical Horizon from having any real staying power. ~ John D. Luerssen